Educational Science

Who Knew? Cats Like to Work for Their Food

News flash to cat owners: Your indoor kitty is probably profoundly bored and unchallenged by its bottomless food bowl. But it's relatively easy to spice up kitty's life with an engaging food puzzle, a new review finds. Food puzzles are contraptions that make cats work for their food. The puzzles...

Skin Medication Can Be Lethal for Pets, FDA Warns

A cream used to treat skin cancer and abnormal skin lesions can be lethal for pets, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned today. The agency said the medication, called fluorouracil, can make pets sick, and even kill them in some cases. People using this medication should use care when...

If there were an Olympic event for stretching, cats would win gold. They're constantly stretching their muscles, likely for many of the same reasons that people do, experts told Live Science. The main reasons? It feels good and increases blood flow, said Andrew Cuff, a postdoctoral researcher of anatomy at...

Plague Strikes 6 Cats in Idaho

Half a dozen pet cats in Idaho were infected with plague this year, according to a new report of the cases. In May through July, veterinarians in Idaho tested 12 cats that had gotten sick, checking to see if the animals were infected with plague. Six of the tests came...

Early Cats Traveled with Vikings and Farmers

The early origins of domesticated cats are shrouded in mystery, but a new genetic analysis suggests that felines traveled the world with farmers and Vikings. The News section of Nature reports that the broadest genetic analysis to date of ancient cats reveals two waves of cat expansion. In the first...

Why Are Cats Such Picky Eaters?

When Fluffy turns her nose up at the bowl of food you've placed in front of her, don't take it personally. Your seemingly high-maintenance cat has evolution to blame for her picky eating. Cats as it turns out are driven to eat foods with a preferred ratio of protein to...

Scent of a Kitten: Perfumer Debuts 'Kitten Fur' Fragrance

Our sense of smell plays an important role in how we interpret the world around us. And for people who love cats, there are few scents as welcome as the smell of the soft fur on a kitten's head. That delectable scent is now available in a bottle. Perfume company...

Cat–astrophe! Feral Cats Have Invaded Nearly 100% of Australia

The cat's out of the bag — and all over Australia. A new study finds that feral cats inhabit 99.8 percent of the continent's landmass, including 80 percent of the land that makes up its islands. Feral cats have long been recognized as a grave and widespread threat to vulnerable...

Hair Ball! How Cats' Tongues Get Them So Clean

Cats are famous for their fastidious self-grooming, but the way their tongues are able to get them so clean has remained somewhat of a mystery. Scientists knew that feline tongues were covered in spines, and now a group of engineers has found that the teensy structures are shaped like claws...

Despite 'Mind-Controlling' Parasite, Cat Owners Not at Risk for Psychosis

Cats are known to carry a parasite linked to symptoms of psychosis in humans, and past studies have suggested that kids who grow up with a feline pet are more likely to have mental health issues. But now a new study casts doubt on that link, finding no such connection...